Key result
Cardiorespiratory fitness correlates nonlinearly with cerebrovascular reactivity in older adults, peaking at ~28 mL/kg/min VO2peak.
Why the study?
Prior studies assessing associations between cardiorespiratory fitness and cerebrovascular reactivity showed conflicting findings dependent on imaging modality or subject characteristics across narrow fitness ranges.
Is cardiorespiratory fitness associated with cerebrovascular reactivity to a breath-hold stimulus in middle-aged and older adults?
Is cardiorespiratory fitness associated with cerebrovascular reactivity to a breath-hold stimulus in middle-aged and older adults?
Cardiorespiratory fitness has a nonlinear association with cerebrovascular reactivity in older adults, suggesting that prior conflicting findings were likely due to studying narrow fitness ranges.
Nonlinear CRF-CVR link may reconcile prior inconsistencies; hypothesis-generating for optimal fitness thresholds in cerebrovascular research.
Earlier studies evaluating associations between cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) and cerebrovascular reactivity (CVR) have demonstrated conflicting findings dependent on imaging modality or subject characteristics in individuals across a narrow range of CRF. This study demonstrates that CRF is nonlinearly associated with CVR measured by blood oxygen level dependent (BOLD) fMRI in a large sample of middle-aged and older adults across a wide range of CRF, suggesting that conflicting prior findings are related to the range of CRFs studied.
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DuBose et al. (2022) studied Healthy older adults (n=114). Moderate-intensity aerobic exercise training (cycling) vs. Light-intensity exercise (passive cycling) was evaluated on Change in BOLD-CVR over time between intervention groups (p=0.23). Cardiorespiratory fitness exhibited a nonlinear, quadratic association with cerebrovascular reactivity to hypercapnia in older adults, increasing up to a VO2peak of ~28 mL/kg/min before declining.
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